Cruise’s Call boosts School fun

New Zealand Herald reports that Actor Tom Cruise revealed his Christmases past and Kiwi present on an Auckland radio show so a tiny Taranaki school can build a sunshelter.

The Edge had put up a $5000 bounty for anyone who could convince the Oscar-winning actor to call the station and go live to air. Cruise heard the offer and short-circuited the plan yesterday morning by calling in himself. But he told the shocked radio jocks the conversation would continue only if they upped the ante to $7000.

The actor added he would match the amount, neatly arriving at the cost of a project under way in the remote four-classroom Urenui Primary School.

During the conversation he confirmed that his partner, Penelope Cruz, was still in Taranaki with him, but he denied having shifted to Auckland, as he was shooting night scenes on the set of The Last Samurai.He said the film crew had been working 12 to 14 hours a day since arriving and any free time was spent hiking or taking helicopter rides around Taranaki.

He reckoned one of his best Christmases was as a child, when family members had no money for gifts.
“So we pulled names out of a hat and we had to do nice things for them … So we wrote them a poem.”

Asked about his best and worst times in New Zealand, Cruise praised the scenery, adding he had not had a worst time.

Urenui Primary School principal Joel Webby said the 101 pupils would be working hard on thank you cards to win a visit from their benefactor so they could thank him personally.